"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Friday, November 20, 2009

Not prudent to exchange intelligence on drug trafficking with Cuban dictatorship

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts"

- Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

"To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite ofthe vivid knowledge that the one that must be loved is not a friend.There is no merit in loving an enemy when you forget him for a friend."

-According to the 1989 indictment, Reinaldo Ruiz was allowed to land planes in Cuba to refuel after dropping drug cargo off the Cuban coast. Drug-smuggling motorboats would come from Florida to pick up the cargo, and Cuban Coast Guard radar monitored U.S. Coast Guard cutters to help the smugglers evade them. The indictments demonstrated the foolishness of sharing intelligence on drug operations with Havana.

-According to the U.S. indictment of Panama's Manuel Noriega, he traveled to Cuba in 1984 after Castro offered to mediate a disagreement between the drug cartel and Noriega.

-In a 1991 Frontline documentary, Cuba and Cocaine, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Commander Jeff Karonis, stated, "We would observe in the middle of the day an air drop going on inside Cuban waters. The scenario would be for a small twin-engine airplane with maybe 1,000 to 2,000 pounds of cocaine to fly over Cuba, drop the drugs to a predesignated rendezvous point to several boats. Then it would exit back down off Cuba, and many times a Cuban military vessel would be in the immediate vicinity, right on scene with them.''

-In 1996, Jorge Cabrera was charged with importing 6,000 pounds of cocaine. At the time of his arrest, The Herald reported that Cabrera was carrying a photo of himself with Fidel Castro. Cabrera made a $20,000 donation to the 1996 Democratic presidential campaign after being approached in Havana in 1995 by anti-embargo activist Vivian Mannerud.

The indictment and capture of Manuel Noriega and his subsequent trial exposed an international narcotrafficking network with high ranking Cuban officials. The Castro regime responded by eliminating possible witnesses that would implicate the brothers in a show trial followed by speedy public execution by firing squad. Cuba is a totalitarian state with one man, one party rule and on that basis along with grand jury testimony implicating the dictator what are the odds that Fidel and Raul Castro are not deeply involved?